The fate of a Franklin woman charged with killing a mother of four may hinge on a vial of her own blood.
In Merrimack County Superior Court yesterday, attorneys wrangled over whether the Franklin police followed proper procedures when they took a blood sample from Lynn Dion, who is accused of fatally hitting Genny Bassett with her car almost two years ago.
Dion, 43, was charged with negligent homicide last November, and her trial is tentatively scheduled to begin next month.
A witness told the police Dion, who lives on Terrace Road, was the driver of the Toyota that hit Bassett on Central Street in Franklin on June 28, 2009. Bassett died almost a month later after her family removed her from life support.
When approached by the police on the night of the accident, Dion said she hadn't been drinking alcohol before the accident but was on prescription medicines including methadone, Neurontin, verapamil and Zoloft, according to court documents.
At the time of the accident, Dion told the police she "did not feel tired or impaired as a result of these medications and that she had last taken medication around 5:30 p.m.," according to arguments filed in court.
Dion told the police she had been on methadone for three years and the other medications for about nine years, court documents said. Court records did not indicate what medicine she was taking the night of the accident.
What happened after her conversation with the police is at the heart of a motion to suppress the blood evidence filed by Dion's attorney, Robert Hemeon.
On the night of the accident, a police officer asked Dion if she would agree to go to Franklin Regional Hospital for a blood test. She consented.
"Absolutely, I wouldn't dream of doing it any other way," Dion told the police officer, according to documents filed by Rachel Harrington, assistant Merrimack County prosecutor.
But Dion did not sign a written consent form until July 2. On that form, she acknowledged that the blood would be tested for drugs and alcohol. The form also stated she would have the right to have the blood tested by an independent party, but the blood would only be kept for 30 days.
Dion was never informed of the results of the tests or allowed to have her own analysis done before the blood was destroyed, which Hemeon argued to Judge Richard McNamara yesterday is a violation of both state law and her constitutional right to due process.
"She was denied the right to have a second test," Hemeon said.
But Assistant County Attorney George Waldron said the state law requiring that Dion be notified wasn't in effect in this case because Dion was never arrested. He likened the situation to one in which a swath of a person's clothes is taken, or if a person's car is searched.
"There's no requirement that she be given the opportunity to test those items," Waldron said of the car and clothes.
Dion's blood test results were not available yesterday.
Prosecutors must meet a higher threshold to prove negligent homicide in fatal car crashes since a 2009 state Supreme Court decision that said some degree of driver inattention by itself isn't criminal.
The high court overturned the conviction of Joshua Shepard, who killed three motorcyclists in Thornton after briefly crossing into oncoming traffic. Shepard was neither speeding nor intoxicated during the accident.
Now, to get a negligent homicide conviction in a motor vehicle accident, prosecutors need to show an aggravating factor to win a conviction.
In Dion's case, the police have not elaborated on the circumstances of the accident, but Waldron told McNamara the police could not have arrested the driver because they had no probable cause at the time.
McNamara cut the hearing short after about 20 minutes because he had not had the opportunity to thoroughly read everything that had been filed, and Waldon said he had not had the opportunity to examine one of the defense's arguments. (next page »)
No comments:
Post a Comment